- Professor Amreek Singh, 1991(in his welcome address to the newly arrived veterinary students of the "Class of 1995")

On ourlast vacation, Dr. Kupkee and I stayed at the Wind Walker Guest Ranch in Spring City, Utah.As we checked in, we were told that this was a very exciting time at the ranch, as all three of the resident nanny goats were due to give birth at any moment!

The next morning, the ranch’s owner reported that one of the goats had delivered a stillborn kid and a live one during the night, but the new mom seemed strangely uninterested in caring for the surviving newborn.

We checked on her throughout the day as the ranch staff hand fed the kid, but there was no obvious explanation for the mother goat’s unusual behavior.

After our ride, we checked on the new family again – and found mom struggling to deliver a third stillborn kid.Triplets in goats are extremely rare.This one was in a position that made it impossible for the mother to deliver naturally and was putting her life at risk.

The ranch owner raced to the house for gloves and supplies while Dr. Kupkee climbed over the fence and into the pen.When I asked him if he wanted me to hold the goat for him, he said “No way!I need you to take pictures.Nobody at home is going to believe this!”

So I snapped away as my city-dwelling husband put on a pair of gloves, reached inside, delivered the baby, milked the mother and bottle-fed the one survivor.

At the end of our stay, one of the wranglers mentioned that he wished he had an extra set of spurs.When I asked what for, he answered “To give to your husband.He earned them!”

Dr Ian Kupkee is an "exclusively" small animal veterinarian practicing in an urban practice in Miami, FL.Brought up in cities his entire life, he now finds that his favorite past-time is loping on a mustang through the desert “out west”.